Selebi not a patient at Biko Hospital

Politics / 30 July 2012, 8:00pm

SAPA

South African former police commissioner Jackie Selebi looks on during his sentencing at the High Court in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday Aug. 3, 2010. A judge sentenced South Africa's former national police chief to 15 years in prison on corruption charges Tuesday, saying he was an embarrassment to the crime-plagued country and the police officers who had served under him. Selebi, 60, was convicted in July after a nation beset by violent crime heard months of testimony about its top cop going on designer shopping sprees with a convicted drug smuggler. (AP Photo/Werner Beukes, Pool)

Johannesburg - Former police commissioner Jackie Selebi is no longer a patient at Steve Biko Academic Hospital (SBAH), its CEO Ernest Kenoshi said on Monday.

“Yes, Mr Selebi has stopped being a patient of (SBAH) for now. He requested SBAH doctors for the transfer to Jakaranda Hospital last week, and he is responsible for his own medical costs,” Kenoshi said.

He said peritoneal dialysis was the kind a treatment that patients were often trained to do themselves at home, hence its colloquial name of “home dialysis”. This kind of dialysis involves having a permanent tube in the patient's abdomen, through which fluids are introduced and flushed out.

Kenoshi said Selebi could return to SBAH anytime he wished to resume treatment there. Earlier, there was no explanation as to why Selebi failed to arrive for dialysis treatment for a week.

According to The New Age newspaper, Selebi received treatment at the hospital last Monday.

Selebi was granted medical parole two weeks ago and placed under house arrest. He was convicted of corruption in 2010 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Last week, there was speculation Selebi could have “jumped” the dialysis waiting list of about 80 patients.

Gauteng health spokesman Simon Zwane said Selebi had not received preferential treatment.

“The decision to provide treatment was not taken on political grounds, but by his doctor, on medical grounds, after they assessed his medical condition.”

Democratic Alliance spokesman James Selfe said it was unlikely Selebi could afford to keep a dialysis machine in his home for the treatment, in view of the fact that he owed the state R17 million in legal fees.

“I don't think it will be possible for him to get the treatment at home, since the dialysis machines they use are expensive.”

According to The New Age, it was possible that Selebi was using his police medical aid to have dialysis at another health facility. - Sapa